Surgeries are nothing to look forward to. Most people dread them and with good reason. One additional problem after surgery is a Surgical Site Infection or SSI. The good news is that if you take antiseptic showers with chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) 24 to 48 hours before admission you reduce the risk of SSIs considerably.

The bad news is that most patients, while wanting to comply with these instructions from their surgeons, usually end up forgetting to take these showers. This naturally results in a much higher rate of SSIs than necessary. So the American College of Surgeons wondered how they could get more patients to remember to take these showers prior to surgery.

They conducted a science experiment with Charles E. Edmiston, PhD, professor of surgery and hospital epidemiologist, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee as the head. A group of 80 people were divided up into sections and some were sent no reminders while others got reminders in the form of email, voice mail and text messages to take the CHG showers.

Close to 66% of the people who got the reminders ended up taking the showers which was a significantly higher number than the other group who did not get reminders. Also 80% of the people preferred the reminder to come in text message form. So based on this science experiment, perhaps surgeons all over the world should now consider texting their patients about taking the CHG showers a couple of days before the surgery to reduce SSIs.